


Swipe Right

by thehiddengrace



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A lot of language, M/M, Tinder, University AU, accidental swiping, mark is a pest in this, mark makes haechan's life so hard, markhyuck friendship, renjun is always cute though right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehiddengrace/pseuds/thehiddengrace
Summary: "Ohhhhhh, we know this one!""Mark! Don't you dare!""It's Jaemin's cute friend, too, the tiny one," Mark tells him, trying to shove Haechan's phone down his shirt and avoid Haechan's roaming fingers at the same time. "Should I swipe right for him, too? I know you're a little soft for him."As usual, Mark does his best to ruin Haechan's life.





	Swipe Right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [berryboys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/berryboys/gifts).



"What are you doing?" Haechan asks, finally looking up from his term paper. He's been studying for hours with his best friend, but Mark's not where Haechan left him on the other end of their couch. 

"Nothing~," Mark sings from where he's slid off the couch and is slumped partially underneath their coffee table. Haechan can only see him from the nose up, but he's pretty familiar with that gleam; it always promises that he's doing something Haechan's gonna hate.

"Mark." 

"Haechan." And then he honest to god fucking giggles. "I thought you deleted Tinder after your date with that tall guy didn't pan out."

"I was going to, but then…" he trails off and puts two and two together and gets that Mark's a little shit. God. He's always doing his level best to ruin Haechan's life. "Did you hack my phone?" 

Mark breaks out in even more giggles. "I just swiped right on like, two hundred guys in a row."

"My phone is fingerprint protected! What are you doing!" Haechan shrieks, throwing his laptop to the side and trying to unearth himself from all the books and highlighters that have him trapped so he can murder his best friend before his reputation gets ruined. There's no telling what Mark's done by now. Two hundred guys! He can't even imagine all the stupid messages he's going to be getting. 

Mark rushes to swipe a few more, but before Haechan even makes it off the couch, he pauses and slides completely under the table. "Ohhhhhh, we know this one!"

"Mark!" And Haechan's grabbing blindly under the table, getting handfuls of Mark's hair and pinching indiscriminately. "Don't you dare!"

"It's Jaemin's cute friend, too, the tiny one, not the creepy one who never stops smiling," Mark tells him, trying to shove Haechan's phone down his shirt and avoid Haechan's roaming fingers at the same time. "Should I swipe right for him, too? I know you're a little soft for him."

Haechan bellows a battle cry and flips the table off of Mark; Mark blinks cutely up at him before Haechan belly flops down as hard as he can.

*

Somewhere in the chaos of Haechan rubbing Mark's face in the carpet and Mark throwing him off so he can clamber over the back of the couch to climb up on top of the refrigerator, they do a bunch of accidental swiping.

Haechan's laying on the kitchen floor, still trying to catch his breath and glaring at Mark as Mark pulls Haechan's phone back out and cackles. "You're getting so many matches!"

"That's because you just swiped 200 losers!" Haechan wheezes.

"Hey. Are you judging all these poor souls without even giving them a chance? One of those losers could be your soulmate."

Haechan rolls his eyes. "One of them's probably _your_ soulmate."

Suddenly Mark stops his cackling and straightens up as much as possible in the cramped space above the fridge. "Holy shit, you just matched with Jaemin's cute friend."

Haechan's tried his best not to think about Jaemin or his cute friend since they broke up five months ago. It hadn't been a gross breakup; it was too casual, and Haechan had just gotten tired of Jaemin's wandering eye and Jaemin was done with Haechan's attitude about it and it'd been the start of summer break and they didn't want to hold each other back, blah blah blah. They didn't even date all that long, so he doesn't hate Jaemin or anything, but it's still been kind of awkward whenever he runs into Renjun on campus because he'd always liked him well enough, maybe even more than he'd liked Jaemin. 

"I hate you," Haechan whines. "Now he's going to think I'm interested and tell Jaemin and Jaemin's going to be smug and _what happened to not ogling each other's friends_ and you know we're trying to keep things from being awkward. You're literally the worst person I know."

"No, no, no, he's going to _know_ you're interested, and dude, he swiped you, too," Mark says before dropping the phone where it lands directly on Haechan's stomach, knocking the breath out of Haechan all over again. "If anything, how's he going to explain to his best friend that he's been ogling his ex?"

"I doubt Renjun's been ogling me. Had to have swiped by mistake," Haechan mutters. Just as he goes to lift his phone, it makes a small ping. 

"Oooooo~," Mark sings from his perch. "Already getting messages from boys. My little baby is all grown up!"

Haechan rolls his eyes and unlocks his phone.

There's probably 30 or 40 messages already from Mark's stupid swiping spree, but Haechan's attention is on the latest one, the one that's from Renjun.

"Oh god, he really messaged me."

"Who? Renjun? Really? What's it say?" Mark asks, starting to climb down onto the counter. When Haechan doesn't immediately launch himself at Mark to continue their war, he hops down and plops overtop Haechan.

"I don't even want to look at it."

"What! Why not? He's cute, Haechan."

"I know he's cute. He's still my ex's best friend. He's still off limits."

Mark rolls his eyes before reaching out and grabbing Haechan's phone again. 

"Don't! He's going to see that I read it!" But he doesn't move to fight for his phone back so Mark opens the message. 

Renjun:  
_lol, hiiiii_

"It's not bad. He's not selling you out to Jaemin yet."

"Yet," Haechan mutters darkly, throwing his arm over his face and resigning himself to whatever fate Mark chooses for him now that he's already in this deep.

*

"You have a breakfast date tomorrow," Mark announces after four minutes of furious texting.

"What have you done!" Haechan screeches, pushing Mark off his chest and scrambling upright. He really shouldn't have let his guard down when Mark had his phone; why had he thought all the damage was already done?

"Relax, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Jaemin finds out and destroys me for corrupting his cinnamon bun?"

Mark rolls his eyes and shoves Haechan's phone back in his hands. "I highly doubt you'd be the one doing the corrupting."

Haechan:  
_fancy meeting you here_

Renjun:  
_lol! what are the chances? must be fate_ 😂

Haechan:  
_yeah.  
i saw your profile and just knew that this was my chance to get your attention and i had to swipe lol_

Renjun:  
_oh yeah?  
what are u going to do with my attention now that u have it?_

Haechan:  
_probably ask you out_

Renjun:  
_probably?_

Haechan:  
_i always thought you were cute, but i was already with jaemin and thought that'd be a bad idea_

Renjun:  
_yeah probably  
ur cute too. i pointed u out to jaemin to begin with, he just got to u first_

Haechan:  
_ok so let me take you out now_

Renjun:  
_k when_

Haechan:  
_the sooner the better  
i'll be waiting_

Haechan doesn't even finish reading the cringey conversation before dropping his phone and screaming into his hands. Mark is always ruining his life.

"This is awful. You're a pushy douche and now he's going to think I'm a pushy douche. How am I ever going to look him in the eye again?"

Mark heaves himself off the floor, like he's already tired of all the drama he's created. "If you really don't want to go, just stand him up. Happens all the time on Tinder dates, doesn't it? He probably doesn't expect you to actually show." He stretches and yawns. "But. He never said he wasn't interested."

*

"I just want you to know that I normally don't do things like this," Renjun says straight off the bat before Haechan can even greet him. He's shivering from waiting in the cold, face pink, fingers twisted together in the sleeves of his giant hoodie; he looks just as soft as Haechan remembers.

"Do things like what?"

"Any of this. I've never actually met up with anyone from Tinder, and I definitely don't go on dates with people my best friend has extensively made out with."

"Then why did you say yes?"

Renjun looks a little lost for words and he flushes even deeper. "You didn't seem like you'd take no for an answer."

Which, Haechan should probably tell the truth, admit it was Mark dicking around, because while Mark doesn't take no from anyone, Haechan does, but then Renjun would probably stutter a bit like he does when he's embarrassed and run off to tell Jaemin and Jaemin's scary when he's protecting his friends. So Haechan gathers up all his spare confidence and decides to be honest where he can. "I'm really glad you didn't say no."

*

The coffee shop they're in is right off campus, so the line up to the counter is ridiculous, full of half asleep students trying to get some caffeine before class and frantic adults who are going to be late to work because they picked a cafe manned by lazy college students. It's not the kind of place Haechan would have picked for a first date, too crowded, too loud, too much awkwardly avoiding each other's eyes. He's really more of a movie then dinner first date kind of guy, two hours of getting comfortable with each other before trying to hop straight into conversation. 

Mark, though, is a serial first dater, and says breakfast dates are the best kind, food and lowered inhibitions because his date is still mostly asleep and an easy end because there's a time limit before he's got to get to class. He even likes this cafe in specific, the line long so they're crowded together, brushing hands while trying to make small talk, cramped tables where they have to lean in close to hear each other over the din. Besides, the pastries are so good it's worth getting up early even if the date doesn't pan out.

Haechan can maybe see the appeal for once, how Renjun looks cozy and sweet in the hazy morning light even though Haechan knows he can be sharp and pointed. He probably would have missed how Renjun is still flushed if they were in the darkness of the theater, how he keeps darting glances at Haechan while he's pretending to look in the pastry case.

It makes him a little bit less nervous about this, Renjun's tiny smile and how warm his eyes are. His phone keeps softly pinging in his pocket, but Renjun doesn't reach for it, keeps his attention on Haechan's rambling, making small hums of agreement in all the right places.

"Who keeps messaging you? Shouldn't you answer them?" Haechan asks once they've ordered and found a table, squashed up against the cold front window.

Renjun chuckles a bit and grins, all of his teeth on display, like he's genuinely amused; it gives Haechan a rush of pleasure that he can witness Renjun looking so pleased with himself; Renjun's always been so reserved and quiet in the past. "Nah, it's just Jaemin. He wanted to make sure I had an out when I realised what a weirdo you are, so he keeps texting me emergencies."

"I'm offended. I am not a weirdo. I prefer eccentric."

Renjun giggles. "He still doesn't believe that I know exactly what I'm getting myself into." But Renjun probably does knows what Haechan's like better than anyone, what, with his first row seat to the shit show that was his and Jaemin's relationship.

Haechan grins back. "So Jaemin knows you're here with me?"

"Of course. It's not like I could hide the fact that I'm going on dates with a man whose face his used to be stuck to."

"Dates?" Haechan asks, suddenly hopeful. 

Renjun's eyes are sparkling. "Yeah. Dates. Didn't you read my bio at all?"

He flushes, because no, the only reason Renjun was swiped at all was because Haechan and Mark had been aggressively battling for the phone and fate somehow intervened; he never would have had the guts to swipe right if Mark hadn't forced his hand. But that's probably not something to tell him when it seems like they both have been harboring little crushes. "No, I just saw you and swiped without thinking twice about it," he lies.

"Cute, but I swiped right for a reason."

*

Renjun goes up to the counter when their order is called so Haechan digs in his pocket for his phone so he can look and see exactly what he's agreed to on Renjun's bio. Before pulling up Tinder, he looks at the latest string of messages Mark's sent him.

Mark:  
_what are you doing_  
_this is the lamest date ever  
kiss him!_

Haechan:  
_are you fucking spying on me?_

Mark:  
_lol yeah  
KISS HIM_

Haechan:  
_its 8:15 in the morning.  
besides I'm not interested in just hooking up. unlike you_

Mark:  
_that's a lie_  
_you kissed jaemin before you even knew his name_  
_at least hold his hand_  
_loser_

Haechan tries to look around the cafe, but this is Mark's home turf and probably knows exactly where to hide so no one can spot him.

Haechan:  
_if you ruin this date, I swear to god..._

Mark:  
_yeah yeah you wouldn't even be on this date if it wasn't for me  
pay me back by kissing him_

Haechan rolls his eyes and opens Tinder, watching Renjun dump too much sugar into his coffee across the cafe. It's kind of endearing.

_if ur looking for something serious, im down. if not, u will be. permanently._

Oh, Haechan thinks to himself a little. Cute.

Renjun comes back, juggling their coffees and muffins, still flushed pink and sweet, and he smiles a little shyly. 

Haechan suddenly doesn't care that Mark's somewhere near by spying, he reaches out and grabs Renjun's hand and doesn't plan on letting go.

*

(Okay, so maybe Mark didn't ruin his life this time.)

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy this! It's probably the most fun I've ever had writing fic for someone else. : )


End file.
